Are the stereotypes about men's and women's wine palates and preferences-brawny Cabernets for the guys, sweet Moscatos for the ladies-really true? Lettie Teague discusses her male-female tasting on Lunch Break. Photo: F. Martin Ramin for The Wall Street Journal. Many years ago, when I first met the wine critic Robert M. Parker Jr., he told me something that I have never forgotten. 'My wife, Pat, has a much better palate than I do, ' he said. (Was it really possible that the most influential wine critic of the modern age was a mere runner-up to a woman named Pat?) The idea that women are better tasters than men is hardly new. It's a 'truth' I've heard repeated over and over again—though, oddly enough, it's almost always asserted by men. But do they really believe it—or are they tossing some sort of an oenological bone to the 'fairer sex'? And more important, is it even correct? I called the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia and put the question to sensory psychologist Marcia Pelchat. 'Women are better smellers than men, ' replied Dr. Pelchat. 'They're better at perceiving odors.' Did that mean that women were actually better tasters than men? After all, what people often perceive as tastes are actually aromas. Dr. Pelchat didn't exactly answer my question but chose to rephrase it instead: 'Flavor isn't just taste, it's a combination of sensory input—it's taste and smell, ' she said.